The most exciting news is that the vegetable garden is 90% planted and the soaker hoses are a success! The soaker hoses were not an immediate success, but with another minor adjustment, I think they are going to be awesome. They seem to be running effectively, provided I remember to turn the darn things off...I have issues with that. I tend to forget that I've turned the hoses on and then come out a few hours later to a mushy mess...or as in last night, I didn't turn the little lever completely to the "off" position. After having a shower with very little water pressure this morning, I went outside and discovered my garden looked like a rice paddy.
Well, I got a little ahead of myself there...let's see...where did we start our "not working"? Oh, I remember. We actually started our week by going up to husband's sister's place in Santa Rosa. We offered to help build them a chicken coop since we have some experience in that department. We loaded up the truck with some plywood and a bunch of the old wood that we seem to have an overabundance of (still!), thinking that we would use those materials to construct a functional yet rustic looking coop. When we got there, we discovered that this was going to be a high falootin' sort of coop...redwood...ooooooooohhhh....aaaaahhhhh....complete with windows, doors, and a tin roof! Very nice!!! After a few hours of sawing, hammering, cussing, drilling, more cussing, changing plans, and fastening, the redwood mansion was complete. It is awesome! The boys did a fantastic job with the construction. I have to admit, that I did very little to help in this venture, other than staying out of the way. As a matter of fact, husband's sister, the Fish, and I ran errands, went to the doctor, as someone (HW) had a fierce case of poison oak, and did a little wine tasting. The wine tasting definitely helped with the poison oak situation. Dinner, more wine, then off to bed to be ready for the next day's project.
Project number two up there, was to get their garden ready to plant. The boys got rock and soil to put in the raised planter beds that our brother-in-law had already built. Redwood, of course. They are really awesome as well and someday, I might need to steal some design ideas. Poison oak girl bought some wine barrels to plant tomatoes in. I decided a wine barrel would be perfect for my herb garden and bought one as well. In retrospect, I should have gotten a couple more, but I can get those later. We later cooked a delicious dinner, ate, and then headed home.
So, as we drove home, I think I may have been grumbling out loud about having to finish weeding the garden area before I could get any plants put in. Husband, who was likely tired of that song and dance routine, decided to rent a rototiller and rototill!! Three cheers for husband! The following morning, we rented aforementioned rototiller, went to the local nursery (less than 2 miles from the house is a fantastic nursery with really nice people) and bought a yard of planter's mix. Good stuff the guy said...lots of nutrients and manure, etc. Rototilled that in...amazing what 50 horses can do for your garden...and I started planning the soaker hose layout. Yay!
This is the idea I copied from a friend's garden. Looks like a winner...easy too...right???
All done...and yes, that is the weekend harvester (me!) casting a shadow over the garden. Seems like this should do it. I ended up hooking up a hose on either end to separate spigots so that the water pressure would be more evenly distributed. Now time to test it out...but I didn't really feel like it, so I called it a day.
The next day, husband and slaves got 6 1/2 cubic yards of river rock to pretty up the front yard area. By the way, one yard of river rock is 3,000 pounds! I helped a bit too, but then I worked on the vegetable planting, but more on that later. In the front yard, we had several plants that had pretty much decided to do whatever they wanted to do, and therefore, were just plain ugly. Years of drought and neglect ceratinly didn't help their cause either. The Blazer got a good little workout pulling those plants out. The ground underneath was a tangled mess of some sort of ground cover that I'm pretty sure would survive a nuclear blast. Our plan was to just cover it all up with rock and then kill the weeds and the left over ground cover that the boy didn't yank out. There were some pieces that just weren't worth the effort. What was worth the effort, though, was the rock itself. The front looks amazing!! There was even enough rock, after the last trip, to put some between the rose bushes that line the driveway and that made them really stand out. The finished prodect is pictured below. I love it!
Okay, so while the others were shoveling obscene amounts of river rock, I planted my vegetables. I ended up going to several local garden/nursery places to get pre-grown vegetables after the dog fiasco. Not sure I covered that previously...my cute little labbie got her line untangled and was able to reach the table where I had placed my precious seedlets for some daily sunshine. She thought that she needed more fiber in her diet?? Anyway, she pulled all the trays down and when she figured out it wasn't anything too exciting, she just left the plants there in a disappointing little heap. I managed to salvage some peppers, but the rest were just sad looking. Not to mention after they were spilled all over the deck, I had very little idea what was what anymore. I'll try again next year. The Fish came over to help me construct the trellis like fence I saw in a friend's yard to hold up my tomatoes. Those cages you get at the store are annoying. They work well at first, but then either collapse or I get my hands stuck in them trying to get the tomatoes out. Not to mention, I have to throw them away every year. The fencing we put up seems much more permanent and useful. After planting all my plants, I decided to try out my new watering system. It started out a little slow, but then gained momentum. As you can see by the photo below, a little too much momentum in the corner.
It puddled something awful... Originally the beans were going to go there, but the flooding made the wooden trellis fall over and when I stepped into that corner, my boots disappeared. The big bird dog thought it was a great place to play and things got temporarily out of control in that corner. Ugh. Plan C...or is it now D? I don't know. Husband to the rescue again...I'm really glad he is a good thinker. I am too, but sometimes I just don't see the solution clearly. He suggested splicing the end of the regular hose that is attached to the soaker hose with one of those hose things that looks like a "y". Then taking the other end of the soaker (after rearranging it) and attaching it to the other part of the "y" thingie. Much better!! I now think that I need to do that on the other end as well. Always a project...
Looking west...
Looking east...
From west to east, we have the following planted: The first 2 rows are a variety of tomatoes, including Early Girl, Better Boy, yellow pear (like little pear shaped cherry tomatoes...yummy!), cherry, roma, and a couple of heirlooms that looked interesting. Next row is the pepper row...mostly a variety of bells and one pepperoncini. We aren't fans of hot peppers, so none of those, but seems like that's all the nurseries sell. Egh. Oh there are 2 eggplant plants there too! Husband isn't too sure about those...actually neither am I. I'm pretty sure that Epicurious.com will come in handy with those. Next comes the cucumber row...munching and pickling varieties. Squash takes up rows 5, 6 and 7. Summer squash, zucchini, crookneck, spaghetti, and one other that I don't remember the name of. We love squash, so we can never have enough. The last row is an odd little mix. At the north end are edame...still don't know how to pronounce that...also not sure why they don't just call them soy beans, which is what they are, I think. Good munching snack and good for you. Then I planted the pea seeds, because started pea seedlets are an elusive crop here in the Central Valley. All the nurseries I called said they had them, but when I actually got there to buy them, they were "sold out". Someone is a few steps ahead of me, I guess. Then at the southern end of the row are the blue lake beans...the staple ingredient of green bean casserole. Yum! I also have some leeks (part of the onion family), but now am unsure where to put those...the wine barrels would be ideal right now.
Then came the wine barrel of herbs. Husband had filled up the barrel with planter's mix and I set out to plant my eight herb pots in what I discovered was now a much too small area. Ugh...I got a little out of control with all the herb choices...good thing I saved all sorts of old clay pots! I filled those with a mixture of potting soil and compost from our compost pile (I know this is a little weird, but the soil out of the compost pile smells soooo good!) and started planting. Below are pictures of how the herb pots turned out. I'm pretty darn proud of myself...now to just keep them watered and things will be good, I think. I might see if I can rig up some drip for those...that would be sooooo much easier. Well, as long as I don't forget to turn the water on...or off...
Clockwise from top: basil, sage, parsley, and cilantro
Clockwise from upper left: lavender, chives, rosemary, and dill
Now for some poultry news...the cute little peepers are definitely in their teenage years. Gangly and funny looking with a bit of an unruly attitude to boot. I put the smaller kids (my 2 Auraconas) in with them and the teens wasted no time bullying the little guys around. I am proud of my tiny peepers in that they are holding their own against the mob. This weekend's poultry project is to build the new crew a little addition to the large coop, so they can stop putting all the shavings in their water dish within seconds of me putting it in there and so they can start getting used to the big birds in the big coop. Plus they will have ample room to move around.
Teenagers...
The adults hens are pretty happy about their new addition...an automatic waterer!! I think the kids (the human ones) are pretty happy about it too. No longer do we have to brave the mad rush of poultry in the morning when we try to go and get the water container out to refill it. They drink a lot of water! It will be nice in summer too...wish I could set up an automatic feeder...
One last note before I retire for the day...this is Coop Mama getting ready to attack my gloved hand looking for eggs. She makes a noise that really is unpleasant to hear, ruffles her whole hind end, and pecks at my hand . Fish and husband prefer the pvc pipe method...she prefers neither. But she keeps the eggs neat and organized. Go Mama!
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